Prediction of likelihood of cancer recurrence
The present invention provides gene sets the expression of which is important in the diagnosis and/or prognosis of cancer, in particular of breast cancer.
1. A method for analyzing the expression of genes in a human breast cancer patient, comprising:
obtaining a fixed, wax-embedded tissue sample from a breast cancer patient;
extracting RNA from the tissue sample;
reverse transcribing RNA transcripts of a set of genes consisting of 15-25 genes, wherein the set includes the following genes: (a) each of Ki-67, STK15, SURV, CCNB1, MYBL2, ER, PR, CEGP1, STMY3, CTSL2, GRB7, HER2, GSTM1, and BAG1, and (b) at least one reference gene, to produce cDNAs of the RNA transcripts of the set of genes; and
amplifying the cDNAs to produce amplicons from the cDNAs for determination of amplicon.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amplicon levels have been normalized against an amplicon level of an RNA transcript of at least one reference gene in the tissue sample.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amplicon levels are threshold cycle (Ct) values.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the breast cancer patient has invasive, ductal carcinoma.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the breast cancer patient has node negative and ER positive breast cancer.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the breast cancer patient has been treated with tamoxifen.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the breast cancer patient has node negative and ER positive breast cancer.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the breast cancer patient has been treated with tamoxifen.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tissue sample comprises core biopsy or fine needle aspirate cells.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of genes consists of 20 genes.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one reference gene comprises GADPH.